


Band Practise Aftermath - A DavEric/Real Friends Band Oneshot Fanfic

by ShiNTIY



Category: Real Friends - Fandom, Real Friends Band, Sleepy Eyes Boney Knees Club, Sleepy Eyes Bony Knees Club, Sleepy Eyes and Bony Knees Club, Sleey Eyes and Boney Knees Club
Genre: DavEric, Fluff, Fluff I guess, Illinois sad boys, M/M, RF, RF band, Real Friends, a lot of swearing kinda, cool guy dave, dave x eric, first fanfic, hahahhahahah kms, pop punk and emo music and shit like that, real friends band - Freeform, shy and insecure eric, sleepy eyes and boney knees, sleepy eyes and bony knees, sleepy eyes boney knees, sleepy eyes bony knees, wow what a great day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 06:31:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10077551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShiNTIY/pseuds/ShiNTIY
Summary: In which Eric is a shy but affectionate guy who likes his cool friend Dave a little *too* much for them to just be friends without anything happening. Dave likes to hug and cry when he’s drunk. Some things happen. Wow. 10/10 description.





	

**Author's Note:**

> If Eric or Dave or someone else who knows them Googled their names, hoping they would find something cool about them and ended up finding this, I’m so fucking sorry. Don’t even read one sentence of this. Fanfics are horrible if they’re written about you, especially this. It’s not smut or anything, it’s just awkward and out of character. Smh, that’s what you get for having fans.  
> AU where they don’t fucking have girlfriends because that makes this shit a lot easier to write lmao (I still think Megan and Allison are cool people though!). Fluff, I guess. This is actually literal shit, I wrote this in an attempt to get over a writer’s block, and sometimes I put in lame phrases I can picture them using (i.e “depressed little kiddo” if Eric were to get angry at himself for being insecure). It was the middle of the night when I wrote this, please cut me some slack. I did not go over this, so there are probably a lot of grammatical errors, or sentences that just plainly make no sense. At all.
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> I DID NOT KNOW HOW TO END THIS FIC WITHOUT MAKING IT TOO LONG, SO IT HAS A PRETTY SHITTY AND OPEN ENDING!

Dave and Eric were sitting in Eric’s basement after agreeing on going over some of the songs from their soon-to-be newest album together. Truth is, though, Eric actually invited Dave over to be able to talk with him alone. Usually Dave would be quite busy, and he was a rather reserved person. Lately, he had not engaged in the band as much as the others; perhaps because he was really into the “cool, silent guy” act, which, to be frank, was something Eric found to be adorably dorky.

Eric has always looked up to Dave, and getting attention from him always makes his day; might just be because Dave is a reserved person, and maybe the guy in the band who seems the least affectionate. Not that Eric thought he was cold or anything. Rather, Eric believed he was quite a(n) “(Illinois) sad boy” as well, but just did not show it was much as the others. Truth be told, Eric had been having a small crush on Dave for quite a while, but his insecurities kept dragging him down, unable to do anything about it. On stage Eric is usually nervous, but Dave’s smile and small, sweet comments give Eric more confidence. Even if it were to be just a “you ready, Eric?”, it makes Eric feel a lot more confident. It encourages him to do his best, because if he does, Dave might smile at him and give him a thumbs up, looking all cute and shit.

The boys had just finished going over the song Scared to be Alone, and were now finished for the day. The taller of the two, David Knox, was packing his stuff when Eric hit him with a “hey, Dave?”. As Eric expected, Dave kept packing his things, keeping his gaze at guitar and the cables connected to it, and his back facing Eric. “You’re not going to leave me already, are you?”, Eric asked him, forcing a laughter halfway through his question, fearing that if he did not add laughter, he would seem like a clingy mess.  
Eric was standing about two metres away from Dave, one of his hands holding the wrist of the other.

Dave did not answer at first. Eric did not know what to expect, but certainly did not expect Dave’s answer to be “of course not” – although he might have hoped for his answer to be something like that.  
Dave slung his bag over his shoulder and turned to Eric. “I’m hungry. You have to make me food first”. A sort of hidden smirk – it was there, but did not really seem like a smirk although his lips certainly went upwards – followed the words, giving Eric slight goose bumps (which Dave hopefully did not notice). A little disappointed by the words that followed Dave’s answer, Eric felt his heart ache for a short second, and his eyelids slowly gliding over his eyeballs, eventually covering about half of his eyes.

Dave thought that Eric’s eyelashes were obnoxiously long. So _fucking long_ , that they covered his beautiful maroon eyes. Sometimes, Dave wished that his eyelashes weren’t that long when he lowered his eyelids the way he did now; it would probably give Dave a chance to tell what emotions Eric really felt instead of just letting a slight glimmer fall through the dark strokes of his eyes.

“Yeah. Sure”, Eric replied, his voice sounding of no emotion; Dave did not know what this meant. Was he disappointed? Was he annoyed? “What do you want?”. His eyes were determined on watching the floor for as long as possible, uninterested in seeing the beautiful man in front of them, knowing it would hurt. But as they played try-not-to-blink with the floor, shoes closing in were to be sighted. “Really, Eric? I was just joking, you know”. Dave’s voice was low, almost humming in the start, and had a slight stutter between the words “joking” and “you know”. To Eric, he sounded concerned, but he did not allow himself to think any more into it than that; of course was Dave not _concerned_. What was there to be concerned about, anyway? He decided to move his eyes a little, realizing that if he did not, he would look like a depressed little kiddo. His gaze shifted to Dave’s right hand. It was clenched, but not in an aggressive way. It was more of a “I’m nervous and about to make spontaneous movements” kind of way.

This startled Eric. He could not recall seeing this type of body language come from Dave before. Eric took a few steps back, letting his arms rest on the sides of his body while tilting his head, allowing him to see Dave’s face more clearly. “Yeah man, sure. I’d make food for you if you wanted me to”. He looked right into Dave’s eyes, but it was as if Dave was looking somewhere past Eric, not willing to make eye contact. “Anything for _you_ , Dave”, he added shortly after, jokingly. Of course, he made sure to raise one of his eyebrows and give Dave the silliest smirk while pushing his lips slightly towards Dave to assure him that he did not mean it in a creepy way; _I mean, sure, I would do anything for Dave, but you know, not because I_ love _him – I mean, man, I don’t know. I might have pictured us together sometimes, but I can’t let Dave know that. That’s just… Wrong. We’re buddies, pals,_ just _friends._

But Dave just _had_ to look into Eric’s eyes when he said that. It seemed like he genuinely meant it, although he tried to cover it up as a joke. Dave’s hands reached out to grab Eric’s, touching them lightly, before stopping and scolding himself, thinking “what are you doing, man? That’s a kinda’ weird”. Eric jumped a little at this sudden hand touching, but calmed down when Dave proceeded to move his arms higher up, and eventually tying them around his neck. “Thanks, Eric”, he said with a cracked, weak voice. _Shit. My voice broke._

What exactly was happening? Maybe it was because they had been drinking a little while practising (to be more clear, Eric had been drinking a little, Dave had been drinking, well, _more_ than just “a little”), but Dave felt a huge amount of sadness piling up inside him; he suddenly got this crazy idea that he had been a bad friend compared to Eric, only because of the simple, but considerate words that had come out of Eric’s mouth.

Eric was confused, but not displeased. He had wanted Dave to hug him like this for too long, but why did he decide to hug him like this right now? “Wha-what? What’s the meaning of this?”, he asked, eager to find out if there were any special feelings behind it that he had not been able to figure out. “It’s just that”, Dave began while digging his face into his friend’s shoulder. “I think you deserve a hug, Eric. Because I know you actually mean all the things you say”, Dave sniffed. “If you were at my house and said you were hungry and I hadn’t prepared any food first, I’d probably just take you to some shitty fast food restaurant without even checking if they served vegan food first”. He quickly realized that his words might have been difficult to hear, but waited to see if Eric understood; he might not have wanted to say them again anyway, for his pride and for the sake of their friendship. Eric would not be able to handle a whiny little child like Dave, would he? Showing one’s weak sides will just make you more unattractive to the other person – that was what Dave had thought for a long time, yet he still decided to be bold and be an emotional wreck in front of Eric over a fucking joke about making dinner.

The words would seem silly to anyone else, but they really hit Eric hard. First because Dave was saying things that made Eric feel as if someone cared about him, but mostly because Dave was being honest. Dave was usually not honest with his feelings, and would often proceed to avoid having to tell the truth – not necessarily lying, just not mentioning the truth. He was dishonest about his emotions as well, even when it came to body language. That was why he would often remain stiff when people asked him questions; he did not want others to see that he cared about what they talked about, in case it would make him look “bad” for showing emotions other than joy.

“Hey, it’s… Really no big deal”, Eric assured, but in reality, it was a big deal to him. Not because of the food-part, but because of David Edward fucking Knox was standing there, hugging _Eric_ , the shy, insecure guy. Eric felt his smile tightening as Dave hugged him; he had not even noticed that he started smiling until now. “No, Eric, thank you”, the brown-hair-so-dark-that-it-was-basically-black-except-some-people-would-refer-to-it-as-dark-brown-haired boy replied. Eric was about to cry tears of – well, he did not know if they were of happiness or relief or angst whatever he was feeling, but his eyes were moister than usual for sure. He had to hug him back when he heard those words, and scooped his arms under David’s. David just hugged him even tighter back then, digging his nose further into Eric’s shoulder-neck-collarbone area, which made Eric feel even stronger emotions. He was unable to put his finger on what emotion he felt; but it was probably a mix of happiness, affection and excitement, in addition to adrenaline and anxiety flowing through him as he wondered where this would end up. Salty drops ran down his right cheek, and he sighed, immediately regretting it, as the sigh was loud enough for Dave to hear. It was not a sigh of disappointment, but a sigh of relief.

Dave was a kind of confused about the meaning of his sigh though; “what, you’re tired of me already?”, he choked, his voice still sounding broken like the voice he had when he hugged Eric (which probably sounded broken because he was about to cry), even though he tried to put in a chuckle. He moved his head, letting his right cheek come closer to Eric’s cheek, still embracing Eric. He sniffled, and was suddenly cognizant of the fact that he actually could feel something with his limbs: Eric’s warmth, and his soft body against Dave’s arms, hands and upper body. He decided to enjoy this while it lasted. He was usually oblivious to the feel of the touch of a human body, but when he realized it was Eric who held him in his arms – or vice versa – he really had to _feel_ , to be able to have a memory as vivid as possible of this moment, for… Later, when it was over; when Eric was not there to hug him back ( _fuck, Eric won’t be there to hug me like this again, right? He won’t be available at all times, nor is it normal to do this kind of stuff for two guys_ ). He had a feeling this was something he would look back at. Maybe it would be painfully awkward to think of later, or maybe it would be a memory to fall asleep to on a sleepless night; either way, he took the chance of carving the feelings so deep into his mind that he would only be able to remember Eric’s squeeze the next hundred times he would embrace someone or something.

Eric felt like he had to do something spontaneous at Dave’s once again almost disappearing words; he wrapped his arms even tighter around Dave, dragging him down with him as he sat down on a chair right behind him. “Nope, I’m not”, he said as he sat down, his position forcing Dave to sit down on his lap, his eyes looking into Eric’s chestnut coloured eyes. “Wow, uh, okay”. The words slipped through David’s mouth in a mumble as he was basically one centimetre away from kissing the fellow guitar player. He laughed nervously, making Eric fluster. This vulnerable, affectionate side of Dave was something he had not seen often, and he had never seen it to this degree! “I’m sorry”, Eric apologized, a little too hysterically; he felt stupid for doing what he did, especially after Dave’s reply (which, to Eric, sounded like he thought Eric was out of his mind, “wow, uh, okay” – what the Hell is that supposed to mean? Was it really that disturbing and uncomfortable to sit in a position like this with his friend? Was Eric really that awful?). “Way to go, Eric, you’re fucking awkward and disgusting and so _damn fucking stupid_ for ever thinking this was a good idea”, a voice in Eric’s head said. Here come his self-depriving thoughts once again! Wee!

He really did not want to look into Dave’s eyes, but he still did, as he was basically drugged on adrenaline and sleepiness. Dave’s eyes were almost closed. In fact, even his mouth was more open than his eyes. He let go of Eric, leaving his own arms to dangle over the floor. Eric decided to stop holding him back. He did not want to make it awkward being the only one still holding onto the other. It seemed David was about to say something, but got interrupted by gravity as he fell to the floor when nothing was holding him back. “Dave!”, Eric yelled a little too loud when the realization that his friend was about to hit the floor because he let go of him, struck his mind. “David, are you okay?”, a worried Eric asked as he pushed the chair behind him away, while throwing himself forward to the floor to support his buddy. The chair fell over, but he did not care about that. All that mattered, was that Dave was unharmed.

“Ouch”, Dave complained, but was fast to turn around to lay on his stomach, only allowing his elbows to support him. He faced the floor, not willing to look up, even when Eric touched his back, asking him if he were okay. Suddenly, Dave let out a sulk. “Dave, buddy?”, Eric called again, not receiving a response. He swiftly moved his hand to Dave’s hair, and stroked it, having no idea what to do but follow his own feelings – when he felt stressed, he wanted someone to caress his hair. It felt nice to run his fingers through Dave’s soft, dark hair that he had wanted to play with for so long – Eric loved to play with hair, including his own hair (more specifically, his fringe). It was calming and intimate, which might have been why he was unable to play with David’s hair earlier; other people would find it weird because that is something one often does with one’s partner.

“Is it bad that I wanted to kiss you?”. The words came from Dave before the loudest, most sob-filled cry Eric had ever heard come from a grown man (except himself, but he was not planning on telling anyone that, of course) followed.

The words struck Eric like a lightning, making his heart ache, his vision blur out, and himself gasp lightly, just for a second. He rapidly pulled his arm away from Dave in shock. His entire body vibrated from anxiety, and his legs were hit the most; they were shaking so greatly that he had to lay himself down on the floor across Dave. Even his lips were trembling as he tried to form the word “what”, leaving him to end up with “wuh” over and over again. He could not complain; he had wanted to hear these exact words for a long time, but now that someone actually said them, he was unable to act.  
“Eric”, Dave finally whispered. “I think I have feelings for you”. A tear ran down Eric’s left cheek as he heard the words he himself had wanted to say to David for a long time. Both of the boys kept quiet for a while, Eric looking at Dave, and Dave looking at the floor. The situation was still unbelievable to Eric, like a dream. His head hurt from confusion. He had many times pictured himself together with Dave, but when he realized he might have had a chance to make those thoughts reality, he was unsure if he really wanted to. Would it change the band in any way? How would the others react? What if they broke up?

“Dave, you’re drunk”, he eventually said as he turned his body so that he would be lying sideways on the floor. Dave did not make a sound. As Eric did not know what to do with the boy in front of him, he kept watching over him without a word. Dave broke the silence: “Yeah… I know”. Finally, he attempted to look up back at his brown haired friend. It seemed he had trouble focusing, though – he had the most confused expression on his face, his eyes squinting and his lips being pushed forward as he tried to find words that could clear up his disordered thoughts. Why was he saying these things just now? _How embarrassing. How humiliating._ Eric was not afraid to look into Dave’s eyes anymore. He was sure Dave was too drunk to remember most of it later, so he decided to speak about it again soon (he was sure Dave was going to bring up this night later – either because of what he said if he were lucky enough to remember, or to ask about what had happened), when they both were sober.

“Dave, let’s… Get you home”, Eric suggested. “I’ll call a taxi, all right?”. Eric tried to stand up, but his legs were still a bit shaky. He picked up the chair that had fallen over, and sat down on it to support himself from his unsteady limbs, and fished his phone out of his pocket. “You’re too kiiiind”, Dave sulked. “Teach me that, Eric”. Maybe Dave talked nonsense, or maybe he meant that he wanted Eric to teach him how to be kind. Either way, Eric was confused. Dave really was kind, but apparently drunk Dave did not think so when he compared himself to Eric. “What?”, Eric asked him, but did not get a reply. He proceeded to call for a cab, and helped Dave to get up on his feet again. He had to support him when walking up the basement stairs with him, but it felt nice to help him. It was like Dave was this dorky boyfriend who was the kind of person who cried when drinking, but that Eric loved to take care of.

Dave had been sent away to his house, but made sure to tell Eric “good night”, “I love you” and “you’re such a good friend, Eric” at least seven times in addition to a lot of gibberish including the words “Eric” and “nice” before the cab left the driveway to Eric’s house. Dave had also attempted to kiss Eric, and, for a minute, Eric was sure he was going to go in for a kiss on the mouth, but instead his lips lightly touched his cheek before he almost fell asleep on Eric’s shoulder.

Eric did not get much sleep that night. He had managed to roll himself into his sheets like a fucking burrito made out of love and with sauce made of anxiety. Memories from the night were played over and over again in his head. The more he remembered the day, the more he could relate to an infant; he moved his legs closer and closer to his body for each time. In addition, he got the urge to cry every five minutes, and craved food (who can’t relate to that, though?). When he thought he was finally able to sleep, his phone started beeping, and flickering beams of light lit up his grey room. It was a text message. A text message from Dave. Another ache in his heart. _What the frick is Dave doing up now? Shouldn’t the alcohol make him exhausted?_

“Godngiht eric thaks for today!!!!|||”, the text said.

_What the fuck._

The average person would not find the text message to be amusing, but Eric laughed anyway (man, was he sleep deprived!). “Good night, David. You really should sleep. Let’s talk about today again soon”, Eric texted back. He was concerned that Dave would do something stupid when drunk, but worried a little less when he got a text back:

“suure I will good thanmks for takin care of me nighth..:.)))”. Eric figured Dave had started writing a new sentence halfway through attempting to write “good night”. What a dork. A cute one at that.

Eric was finally able to fall asleep… Another hour after that message.

 

_Please someone punch me in the  face im so tired and this is terrible and this is sin and I hate myself so fucking much for this but im still putting this up here because I want to know If there actually are some other people who ship DavEric,, or if you ship eRIan (eric x brian) feel free to hmu!!!_


End file.
